#yamamoto : verse * ten years later | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stellacolletore · 4 years

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08.21.2020

though i would hide it, in my face it still appears (it is true i love) anime: chihayafuru characters: oe kanade, mashima taichi/ayase chihaya summary: with a love like theirs, Kanade’s sure Taichi and Chihaya will be alright. note: covers the events from season 1 (had to rewatch a looot, taichi/kana brotp still the best), seasons 2&3, and my post-queen’s match headcanon (see 7 wonders of mizusawa for details)

President Mashima swipes block over the stalker’s number, and suddenly, Kanade feels things fall into place.

He’s in love with Chihaya-chan.

There isn’t enough room for celebrating her newfound discovery as she laments over the fact that she’s the only one around with eyes that see this. Ergo, she’s the only one who would be knowingly standing along the sidelines, watching wherever the depths of love would take two of her dearest friends. Surely, there’s nothing more frustrating for a lovestruck girl than that.

Chihaya-chan gapes at her phone, totally lost on the purpose behind Prez’s gesture. Kanade sighs.

This love will really take its sweet time, won’t it?

ii.

He’s just won his most important match to date and still, they find him only thinking of her.

“Chihaya, get up. Let’s go,” Prez is tugging Chihaya-chan’s limp arm, voice tinged with unusual urgency. Dazed at the turn of events, Kanade’s mind is unable to make sense of what’s happening in front of her. The match had gone most unexpectedlyーopening with Prez effectively losing the unnerving level of concentration that has kept him unbeatable throughout four straight games, continuing with the tension (and fault)-filled Class B finals that kept her, Chihaya-chan, and Hanano-san on edge until the last card, and ending with him donning a worried expression in place of a happy one after reaching the long-elusive Class A title.

Her inner voice spells the situation out for her.

He’s taking her to Wataya-san. Prez thinks Chihaya-chan’s been watching the wrong match, the wrong boy, all along.

That certainly explains the oddly messy game he played with Yamamoto-san.

But that’s not right.

Kanade’s about to shake him out of his self-sacrificing behavior when Chihaya-chan beats her to it.

“Omedetou, Taichi. Y-You’re Class A now. Congratulations.”

Like mirror, President Mashima’s eyes reflect Chihaya-chan’s glassy ones. Euphoria washes over him as he finally acknowledges his achievement. Kanade wishes she could capture the moment like a photograph, could mark it in long-lasting verses of poetry.

See, Prez? She cares for you just as much. It’s Wataya-san’s big match, too, but she’s only thought of you.

iii.

Prez is playing the game with his heart on the line, and finally, she’s looking at him.

Hanano-san sees this, too. Beside her, Kanade once again admires her kouhai’s pure love, steadfast in the face of heartbreak. It bears the same signature as the President’s, and a twinge of bittersweet feeling swirls in Kanade’s heart. She prays for Hanano-san’s own happiness before bringing back her attention towards the final and most personal match of the Yoshino tournament, sincerely hoping.

Please keep looking, Chihaya-chan. He’s there because of you. President Mashima’s made it there because he loves you.

iv.

When President Mashima leaves the club, he takes a part of Chihaya-chan with him.

Kanade’s well-aware of what it is, and so she picks up the fallen microphone on the ground, abandoned in the wake of Chihaya-chan rushing out after him. Even though she’s equally left in the dark about Prez’s decision, she understands. That is why, with tears brimming in her eyes, Kanade holds the microphone to her lips, wills her voice not to waver.

You can leave this to us, she thinks, it’ll be alright.

Needless to say, things are the opposite of alright after that, and soon enough, Chihaya-chan parted ways with the club as well.

Doubt, fear, and helplessness cloud over the remaining members of the Mizusawa Karuta Club now that their sun and moon are missing. Still, Kanade learns to find comfort in the fact that the string of fate tied between President Mashima and Chihaya-chan won’t easily give way.

A wave of loneliness sweeps her with the chilly night air on the road home. Kanade draws warmth from a poem that sympathizes with her deepest hope of the moment:

Swift waters Parted by jagged rocks Are joined By the river’s end.

Chihaya-chan is a formidable force, poise unbent and passion blazing just as strongly, even in the middle of unmet promises and a missing loved one.

She pulls them in the classic team huddle. And talks about the fear and the hope she’s been avoiding since he walked out on the club and out of her life.

“Mashima Taichi, a person who made the karuta club with me, quit the team, but… I believe he will be back someday, maybe years later, or tens of years later. In the meantime, I will become the queen. And...while I wait for him, I will make Mizusawa into a karuta powerhouse like Hokuo Academy…”

The karuta she plays against Wataya-san is one they’ve never seen before, but feels inexplicably familiar.

It takes Kanade a remainder of the match to realize why.

Poem 16.

vi.

President Mashima comes back to fight for the place closest to Chihaya-chan.

In the end, the match went in Wataya-san's favor; leaving everybody in tears at President Mashima’s defeat and Wataya-san’s sincere display of gratitude at the Prez’s valiant effort in playing karuta.

Kanade just dried her own tears off when she turned towards Chihaya-chan. “P-President Mashima gave it his all, did he not, Chihaya-ch…”

At the sight of the girl before her weeping with strong, bitter tears, Kanade’s thoughts come to a halting stop, untilー

If her tears are indeed for President Mashima,

Then he may just have reached the place closest to Chihaya-chan after all.

vii.

Nobody could believe it.

Chihaya-chan is going for the win, as if she hadn’t been on the brink of losing two matches ago. Taking Wataya-san’s advice of entering her own “arena”, Chihaya-chan played the third and fourth games as Mizusawa’s Ace, pushing the limits of her hard-earned skills and natural talents to get cards for her team. Kanade feels honored to be a part of Chihaya-chan’s strength.

Chihaya-chan swipes the last card at Wakamiya-san’s formation, and just like that, they’re down on the luck of the draw.

Kanade checks the two remaining cards on Chihaya-chan’s side.

No way.

There are a hundred cards in karuta, a hundred poems in Hyakunin Isshu, and yet those two cards remained. If this isn’t fate, Kanade doesn’t know what it is.

Kanade looks over at Wataya-san, watching Chihaya-chan’s match after claiming the Meijin title a game ago, and her suspicion is confirmed. The se card belongs to Wataya-san.

And, of course, the tachi card is Mashima-kun’s.

This is more than sending a card, Kanade realizes.

Fate is asking Chihaya-chan to choose.

She remembers a strategy Chihaya-chan has always followed as Harada-sensei’s star pupil.

“Since I’m an offensive karuta player, I would send my special cards to my opponent, and it’s because I want to get some things badly that I would part with them. And I would go into the fight with the resolve to get them no matter what.”

Chihaya-chan moves to pick up a card.

“Challenger Ayase-san sends ‘tachi wakare’...”

viii.

“‘Let’s play karuta forever, Taichi’ーSince when?! Ayase-senpai, since when did you like Mashima-senpai? What do you just mean by ‘play’? Is it play, play or play as in let’s date and get married and live happily everーhmhm, mph!” Kanade cuts off Hanano-san’s tirade, noting Chihaya-chan’s rapidly reddening cheeks and startled eyes. “Hanano-san, shouldn’t you congratulate your senpai before anything else?”

Hanano-san recovers quickly enough, her own cheeks flushed in embarrassment, and says, “Omedetou, Ayase-senpai. You’re incredible.”

Chihaya-chan merely blinks at them in reply, and Kanade’s instantly worried that her brain has gone haywire after being cornered with Hanano-san’s frank questions. She lays a comforting hand on Chihaya-chan’s arm, thinking about what to say to divert her attention. “Chihaya-chan, Harada-san’s waiting at the break room for you. Shiranami Society’s already throwing a party there, why don’t we goー”

“I just don’t want him to disappear again.” Chihaya-chan’s looking straight at Hanano-san, a mixture of desperation and determination swirling in her eyes. “Apart from chiha, the card that I won’t absolutely let go of is tachi. I want to show him how much I want to get to him by sending and getting the card butー” her eyes start to glisten, her voice shaky, “ーbut he didn’t see me, didn’t he? He’s not here, he’sー”

“Chihaya-chan,” Kanade tries to conjure a warm, reassuring tone. “Don’t worry. If he hadn’t seen youーwhich I highly doubtーthen you’ve just got to show him again, right? You’re an offensive player, Chihaya-chan, I’m sure you won’t give up without a fight.”

Thankfully, those words are enough to quell Chihaya-chan’s despair. She fixes her posture, her resolve following suit, and her eyes twinkle with a newfound passion. She smiles, “Thank you, Kana-chan, Sumire-chan.”

Kanade beams. President Mashima might have been MIA as of the moment, and Wataya-san is fast approaching with a look that tells he’s about to have a long, overdue talk with Chihaya-chan, but it’s all right.

With a love like theirs, Kanade’s sure Taichi and Chihaya will be alright.

#chihayafuru #taichihaya #kanade oe #mashima taichi #ayase chihaya #kanade best wingwoman #come talk chihayafuru with me!#also posted on ao3

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gunnerpalace · 5 years

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Can I ask your opinion on Fade to Black? I just rewatched it and my Ichiruki heart is just overflowing with feels! But anyways I love your analysis and opinions on all things Bleach.

I am that rare IR who does not actually like Fade to Black very much. I can see what it was trying to do, and I appreciate the idea in concept (and some little moments here and there) but I am not at all a fan of how it was actually put together and executed. I guess I’ll do this as a pros and cons list:

PROS:

I don’t like Mayuri but I sort of like how he was handled in this movie. Him keeping a physical backup of his brain is a cool sci-fi idea for dealing with advancing the plot later.

Dark Rukia’s design is fairly cool. Especially in the little promo book that came with the movie, which you sometimes see screenshots of floating around.

The degree of attachment Ichigo shows toward Rukia is endearing.

The scene where Kisuke asks what Rukia is to Ichigo is cute and pretty spot-on.

Kisuke showing up in his old captain’s uniform for seemingly no reason other than to tweak Yamamoto’s nose is pretty funny. Him and Yoruichi basically alluding to the Soul Society arc is also kind of cute.

Ichigo using some special technique that’s unique to him in order to find Rukia (because it ain’t reiraku) is great.

The fight scene between Ichigo and Dark Rukia, and how Ichigo solves it and saves her, is well done and engaging.

Their little hug scene that’s gif’d on here a lot is sweet.

The ending where they have this discussion about how maybe this isn’t the first time they’ve met feels a little underplayed (they’re real far apart and stoic for people discussing such mushy things) but it’s still nice.

CONS:

I’m really tired of arcs about rescuing Rukia and reducing her to a damsel in distress, because she’s better than that. The Soul Society arc was the first time, and it was set up well and worked just fine—it’s classic. Fade to Black’s reasons are contrived (more on that later) and derivative. Then Hell Verse did it again and it was just stupid by that point. There should’ve been a rescue Ichigo movie instead, and the Xcution arc doesn’t really count since that’s presented as a horror story mostly from his perspective.

Rukia’s has had a hard life as a character and has been dumped on consistently, so I view adding yet more misery and pain onto her as gratuitous and frankly kind of insulting in general.

While Dark Rukia’s design is cool, it’s not really Rukia at all. It is very clear she’s an unwilling participant. It kinda looks like her, but it’s all Homura and Shizuku, they’re just forcing her along into it. And you know what? That’s basically rape, even if it’s not sexual rape. It’s still a total loss of consent and bodily autonomy. I’m pretty not cool with a plot that boils down to Rukia being raped.

I just hate the visual design of the kids. I can’t explain why beyond saying they just look out of place in the setting. Homura in particular looks like she walked off the set of Yu-Gi-Oh.

The backstory with the two kids frankly doesn’t make much sense. She meets Renji when she’s seemingly somewhere around the age of Karin or Yuzu (like 8-12) and they and their friends are together for ten years. At the end of that, she enters the Academy. In the flashbacks with these kids, she looks indistinguishable from how she does in the present? When exactly was this supposed to be happening?

The entire plot of Soul Society not knowing who Rukia is is stupid. Soul Society is a bureaucracy. From what we are shown, the majority of what they do every single day is paperwork. Just like Japan still to this day loves forms in triplicate, Soul Society fucking loves paperwork. And they love records and archives. And all Byakuya can do is find one lone book that references Rukia? There would be literally hundreds and hundreds and thousands of documents referencing her, or signed by her. The most casual search would indicate she was real.

Kon is annoying as hell in this movie. Like, he’s usually annoying, but not as much as he is here. It’s distracting and grating.

Ichigo is a continual disappointment in this movie. There are so many things that I will give them their own entries denoted by letters below:

A. People say he remembers Rukia when everyone else forgets. He doesn’t. Only Kon remembers Rukia. Kon jogs Ichigo’s memory. Ichigo does admittedly remember fully and quickly, which puts him ahead of everyone else, but he still forgets to begin with. That’s stupid.

B. Ichigo is extremely wishy-washy in this movie. He requires a speech from Kon, can’t or won’t beat Shuhei of all people even with his mask on, and loses to Toushirou. It’s pathetic. I get it, he’s a sad puppy without Rukia. It’s still pathetic to watch. The only time in the manga canon where his confidence wavers when it comes to trying to get to Rukia is during the Soul Society arc, when he wants to stay and wait for Ganju so they can settle their quarrel, and you can read that as being unique because it turns out they’re cousins and Ichigo may know something is unique, even if he doesn’t know it. This shit of him becoming discouraged and sad when trying to get to her is out-of-character.

C. This is an extension of (B), but like. Okay, when Orikasa Fumiko is voicing Rukia, and she screams in agony or despair, it chills me to the bone. I cannot explain to you how much I don’t like hearing it. It makes me anxious and makes me angry. She did it on the Senzaikyu when Gin broke her resolve to face death, and she does it in this movie when the Hollow fusion starts. And all Ichigo can do… is stand there uselessly going “Rukia…” like it’s nothing unusual. If he had been on the Senzaikyu bridge when Gin had done what he’d done, and he’d heard Rukia scream like that, he’d have fucking murdered Gin right then and there in cold blood. And here he faces the equivalent and does nothing. That’s not my boy. That’s not Ichigo.

D. When Rukia is crying over the deaths of Homura and Shizuku, Ichigo just stands there uselessly beside Renji and Byakuya and does nothing to console her. Renji and Byakuya at least have an excuse because they still don’t remember her. What’s Ichigo’s? Again, not him. Go to her you moron. At least grasp her shoulder. Not the Ichigo I know.

The fight scene with the goo monster is dumb as hell. Yamamoto should be able to solo it. He activated Ryuujin Jakka and… completely disappears from the fight. He just straight up vanishes. Because you can tell they realized he should be able to solo it and that would deprive them of everyone else getting a fight too. So he just instant transmissions out of the entire movie. And we get contrived shit like the monster being faster than Yoruichi and Soi-Fon so that Kisuke can heroically save Yoruichi (because him doing it in the Yammy fight wasn’t enough already). It’s just contrived, gratuitous, and pointless.

While the IchiRuki moments are very cute (if a little overly restrained, in my opinion) I feel like the rest of the movie that is set up to make them happen is a hot mess. Things happen because they need to for the plot to work, not because it makes sense or is in character for them to happen. I can’t stand movies that are made that way for any franchise, and seeing characters I care about deeply behave in such ways really just kinda pisses me off. The story beats are derivative and generally inferior versions of things we’ve already seen.

Movie Ichigo is generally out-of-character as fuck (and not just in this movie!) in a way that reminds me of like, Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies (wherein he acts basically nothing like he does on the TV show). And Movie Rukia seems generally reduced to a background character.

I said recently that Rukia and Doomguy would be friends, and you know what? I would watch that movie instead of Fade to Black or Hell Verse, to be honest. Let’s do an outline.

Ichigo is kidnapped by some denizen of Hell (Kokutou and Shuren and company, I guess? they can still be anime pretty boys even if they’re damned souls, maybe they have terrible demonic forms or something) to be used as a reiatsu battery or some shit for evil purposes. (Breaking out of Hell to overrun the other worlds?) Ichigo’s energy running wild causes some kind of temporal and dimensional vortex which draws in the Doomguy. He finds himself in the upper levels of Bleach’s Hell and does what he does, methodically murdering his way about.

Rukia is sent to investigate Ichigo’s disappearance and eventually figures out Ichigo is in Hell, and so goes to save him (against orders, with the help of Kisuke and maybe the others). There she encounters Doomguy, and is at first horrified, but she notices the rabbit’s foot he keeps on him. She decides to help him, and they’re left alone for a minute, assessing each other.

Despite their initial lack of a shared language (maybe his helmet can translate Japanese?), she communicates to him (with Chappy drawings!) that she has to go deeper into Hell to save Ichigo. Given their shared love of bunnies, Doomguy is down with that. She rides on his back as she did with Ichigo, working some of his spare guns as they go. (Imagine Rukia cocking a shotgun meaningfully tho…) Along the way Rukia freezes some dudes and Doomguy punches their heads off. The usual stuff. She tells him about Ichigo as they go, like she did to Hanataro. Doomguy says nothing because he’s Doomguy, but he seems to listen.

They eventually get to Ichigo and liberate him through the judicious application of firepower. His raging reiatsu causes a lot of damage to the surrounding environment. Doomguy takes advantage of the chaos to commit more murder, giving Ichigo and Rukia time to have a tender reunion moment. The three then team up to take on Kokutou, Shuren, and the other baddies, possibly over the course of several different battles. (Probably like a third or so of the movie is this, and maybe the others show up to pair off and get some screen time. Doesn’t really matter.)

Eventually Shuren and the other chumps die and Kokutou becomes the big bad. Ichigo and Rukia do a big tag-team bankai attack to kill him after Doomguy provides them with an opening with a BFG9000 shot (as he is mostly doing add-clear).

Victorious, the three escape to the upper levels of Hell again, where they are met by reinforcements from Soul Society and explain that Doomguy is a friend. Eventually, Kisuke does some technobabble shizzlewizzle to send Doomguy back to the dimensions he more properly belongs to. Rukia gives him a parting gift of a drawing of him and Daisy in happier times. Ichigo gives him a fistbump and a CD player with some punk music, or a collection of edgy Shakespearean poetry or something.

Ichigo and Rukia share an epilogue to decompress and have some playful banter about how she’ll always be there for him just like he’s there for her.

Roll credits to At Doom’s Gate or BFG Division. Mid-credit sequence is Doomguy sitting on a massive demon corpse, making a detailed Chappy drawing of himself, Rukia, and Ichigo killing demons together as friends. End-credit sequence is Ichigo and Rukia playing an FPS game together on a console in pajamas or lounging clothes while laughing and bantering.

Like, yes, this idea is pretty stupid (although I am increasingly tempted to write it) and a frankly bizarre crossover. But you know what? It feels truer to the characters to me, and less contrived and dumb in setting up why what is happening is. It doesn’t really make the characters needlessly helpless or incompetent to generate those good moments of interaction.

And that is really my problem with Fade to Black: what it has to do to get the good moments outweighs them, for me. Maybe it’s because I just can’t turn my brain off and can’t stop doing critical analysis, but I always feel like the juice ain’t worth the squeeze. (And I kinda feel that way about all the animated movies. I was really surprised by how much I liked the Live Action: it nailed handling things perfectly.)

Other people like it, and that’s fine, but I don’t really intend to ever watch it again.

#Asks #rukia-kuchiki-divided #DoomBleach #god why did this stupid crossover even occur to me #i hate it #but i love it #but i HATE it

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wolfsrainrules · 6 years

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I was super drunk and I wrote a thing so now you all get to see it-

Yamamoto Akemi narrowed her eyes.

She wasn’t sure what it was, but something was definitely absolutely different with Todoroki Enji. Everything from how he held himself, to how he interacted with everyone. Her instincts prickled. Whatever it was that had happened, it was something important. Akemi would bet her quirk on it.

She hadn’t even had to dim his flames once.

Her quirk- Flame Manipulation- had been put into use many times over their years at UA. She’d even had to do it a few times when she met him after that, despite his being the Number Two Hero.

She’d seen the news footage almost as soon as it happened. All Heroes tended to help keep each other in the loop of ‘what’s happening’. It was partly to help prevent all the heroes from rushing to one place since someone else had it handled, partly to direct certain heroes to incidents, and mostly because heroes were a nosy bunch.

It was why the heroes had their own app that they had to be cleared to have, and then the hero had to go to one of the specialty locations and have it downloaded. There was a lady with a technology based Quirk that made sure only those cleared to use the app could access it in the event a hero’s phone was stolen- Akemi had no idea how it worked.

She’d been in the middle of breakfast when the alert came in on her phone. She’d opened it even as she shoved the rolled omelet into her mouth for a moment, her eyes widening in shock as she took in the news coverage of Enji staggering out of a forest looking like hell.

What or Who had managed to do that to Enji Todoroki?

She’d been one of the Pros called in to look at the scene after Enji left, and she’d been just as confused as everyone else. With the fire burning so hot it had turned literally everything around it into ash, cracking the ground and leaving nothing behind…

There was nothing to be found.

She’d just have to wait, like everyone else, until Endeavor reported on the incident, and she’d have to pray that whoever had gotten the better of Enji would be dealt with.

LINEBREAK

The next time she sees Enji, she stills. He’s out with his family. His wife is standing close by his side, his three year old daughter is running in front of them, and it’s like ice down her spine. Not the scene itself- that in and of itself is actually rather cute.

No.

She’d seen Enji with his family before. She’d watched them at all the hero balls, seen all the pictures the press took whenever they step out of the house. She’d seen Enji’s face when he told his colleagues that he was getting married.

It was completely different than this.

He’s looking at his wife when she sees him, and she can see something soft in his eyes that had not been there even a week before the Incident. There had been no hint of that softness in him. It’s like he’s a different person, and Akemi wants to storm over to him and demand answers.

She doesn’t.

LINEBREAK

Enji sees Yamamoto Akemi across the park.

His chest tightens, and his breath stalls in his throat as he stares into those blue-fire eyes.

The last time he’d seen those eyes, they’d been lit from within. She’d been standing between three Noumu, and two villains, and ten of the younger kids UA had taken in for protection. She’d snarled at them all like an animal, her dark lavender hair flickering as her flames spread. Her legs braced, shoulders lowered, body crouched in an unmoving wall of protection.

She’d taken the entire group on by herself, the only Pro on the scene at the time. Enji had seen the video of it later.

She’d won. She’d won, but when she came back, when she staggered into UA’s walls leading children back home soot covered and sobbing-

She’d been bleeding internally the entire time. She’d known it. Could feel it. And still, she had walked those children home like they would all come out alive. She’d crashed into his arms as soon as she’d seen him, gasping wetly. She’d had no strength to continue forward then.

Her eyes, always lit from within by her flames, had dimmed and flickered. “Enji,” she gasped, choking on blood “I’m sorry, tell Shouta I love him. Tell him I love him so much. Tell him I’ll wait, and to take care of himself. Tell him it wasn’t his fault. Tell him Enji.”

Enji had known the moment she collapsed against him, that innate sense of flame that he carried telling him how hers sputtered and guttered against him. He’d held her to his chest and agonized over what this would do to Aizawa. He’d promised her with a tightening throat, gripping her close like he could hold her to this Earth.

She smiled, blood bubbling through her teeth, and every gasp wet and agonized. She’d grinned and reached up, gripping his shoulder and demanded more of him.

“Take care of my husband for me Enji- and make sure our kids make it out of this if you can.” her next gasp stuttered in her throat, and he watched her chest stall and start for a frightening moment. Her smile was a soft and sad thing as her eyes, dimming even further still, met his own blue “You’ve changed you know. For the better. I’m proud of this you.” she choked and blood splattered over Enji’s chest and cheeks.

He stopped breathing.

Akemi’s eyes drifted past him, towards the ceiling, her breathing slowing “Tell Shouta I love him, and make sure he gets this.” her hand shook and almost didn’t make it to her neck. It fell onto her chest, but her fingers fished the silver chain free all the same.

On the end of the necklace was her wedding ring.

“Give Shigaraki hell for me okay? And make it out on the other side alive.”

He’d watched that dim glowing of her eyes become embers, and then smother itself-

He’d been there when Aizawa came back, he’d watched the man shatter-

“-i? -ji are you- Enji!” a ice cold hand against his cheek snapped Enji’s attention down to Rei as his wife worked to get his attention with worried eyes.

He breathed.

When he looked up, Akemi had disappeared from view.

END

It was just a drabble idea i did when I was drunk, about an OC who was in our Favor Fire verse.

I have no idea where I was going with it. But now I’m reworking the ENTIRE THING thanks to Tricks, over in my Discord. It’s gonna be so different. But STILL crossed with our Favor Fire verse. So....look forward to my first (aside from this) actual posted OC centered story????????/

#Wolfsrainrules writes #wolfsrainrules and northpeach #OC centered #drunk writing #I had fun with it #Im about to rewrite this entirely #so I figured you all could see this #instead of just erasing it #I wrote this drunk off my ass #just a heads up #enjoy the blurb #drabble #I crossed it with Favor Fire #I Hold With Those That Favor Fire fic

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crowspy · 6 years

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// verse: fallout (cliffnotes)

(shit is still long, check under the cut)

history

overview - born in 2254 at raven rock as shouta yamamoto - if asked, he’ll insist he doesn’t have parents and instead spontaneously burst into existence one day as a fully grown adult - in truth, both of his parents died when he was still a baby, and he doesn’t have any memory of them, as he was primarily raised by the enclave’s nursery and education system - the enclave put a heavy emphasis on Patriotism and Loyalty and Group Think, but those who were more prone to independent and quick-thinking were encouraged to pursue careers in the secret service over the department of the army and scientific fields - so, to the secret service he went. aside from the duty of protecting the president, the enclave’s secret service also served as their intelligence agency (canon) - shouta proved to thrive in training for surface missions, particularly those requiring long-term undercover assignments - he wasn’t prone to forming close bonds even among those who raised him and he was raised alongside; he exhibited high amounts of independent thinking and persistence in the face of obstacles (which also meant he was prone to making trouble around the base); he proved to be “irritatingly patient” when it came to achieving his goals, and even when bored and restless, he didn’t lose sight of those goals; he showed an aptitude for stealth-oriented combat ... - yeah, all in all, he perfectly qualified as “get him the fuck out of here so he can make himself useful to us out there getting information”

personal life growing up - his difficulty forming close bonds started when he was very young, as a matter of course from the lack of solid parental figures, let alone remotely caring ones - sprinkle in a dose of lingering pre-war anti-asian racism (which survived thanks to the enclave’s nationalistic attitude) [headcanon], and he wasn’t exactly encouraged or motivated to grow close to anyone - this in particular met badly with his stubborn streak and small stature, which all combined into him learning to be an underhanded little shit who liked to stir up trouble just to annoy everyone around him - he also learned to keep his true opinions to himself, because the enclave is heavy-handed in its punishments (especially those considered potentially traitorous) [headcanon], and while he liked being difficult in nature, he also liked having basic privileges and being alive - all of those qualities that made him useful to the secret service were born more or less out of a survival instinct - he had a reputation — among both his peers and the adults in charge of him — of being a nosy, noisy, restless, easily bored, passive aggressive smartass, thanks to the above traits coupling with his high need for mental stimulation - he didn’t so much have friends among his peers as he had people he found entertaining and who thought he was funny ... but none of them were willing to back him up if (when) he ever got in trouble (which contributed to that whole “not forming close bonds” thing) - the enclave believed in using harsh punishments on those who stepped out of line, to make them an example of improper behavior [headcanon]. with shouta, though, all that did was drive him farther away from their core beliefs - it was kind of a vicious circle, oroborous-style. the enclave’s treatment of shouta caused him to question them, and the more he questioned them, the worse things got for him - but he was always careful to toe that line so he wouldn’t get exiled or executed, and he worked hard at his training to prove himself useful so they’d be even more reluctant to permanently get rid of him - overall, though, the general populace was glad to see him sent out into the wasteland and shouta was equally glad to get the fuck out, if not more so

secret agent man - he was deployed as a secret service undercover operative at the age of eighteen - it was around this time he first started using the name “bellamy” as his code name - his ability to learn fast and think quick on his feet helped to get him established. he ended up so successful at his job that he ended up staying out of the bunker for months at a time, and never had to break his cover - while it was tempting to use his cover to disappear into the wasteland and cut ties with the enclave, there were a couple of things keeping him from doing that - reason number one being that he wasn’t immune to the way the enclave conditioned its members. he still ended up with a longing to be connected to a group, to a greater cause, and even if he didn’t really fall in step with the enclave’s party line, the enclave was part of his identity - reason number two being the simple fact that he didn’t want to have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life, waiting for his former family to come hunt him down and kill him for turning traitor

the fall of the enclave - he was twenty-three when the lone wanderer left vault 101, and he had no knowledge of the truth behind president eden’s plan - he was also fortunate enough to not be at raven rock when the lone wanderer led the brotherhood of steel and liberty prime to the enclave’s doorstep - his partner at the time had a wife who was a first lieutenant in the military, and when she managed to escape with a band of others, she refused to leave without louis — so when they stopped to collect him, they got +1 bellamy, too - louis and bellamy used their undercover skills to help the others stand out less in order to increase their chances of surviving as they fled the capitol wasteland - once they reached the commonwealth, the survivors scattered, only keeping bare minimum coded radio contact throughout the next ten years

the commonwealth - by the time of 2287, bellamy is aged thirty-three and has staked a range of jobs to make a living, including: - scavving (in general and also for hire, since his stealth skills made it possible for him to slip in and out of locations to retrieve items for pay) - acting as an informant (for just about anyone, unwittingly even giving information to institute agents) - farming (for a very brief period of time, for the sake of having the new experience) - a caravan guard (he didn’t enjoy this too much) - mercenary (not as a heavy, though; he took on the quieter jobs, the kind that his employers didn’t want to draw attention to) - starting in 2285, he started operating out of diamond city, first running general errands and running specific scavving requests for shopkeepers and citizens - about a year or so later, he also signed on with the railroad as a tourist, feeding them information about goings-on within diamond city (codename? corby) - as he gradually earned trust, he worked his way up into a cushy job for an upper stands citizen as a personal assistant — still running errands they don’t want to deal with themselves, but also delivering messages and handing sticky social, then political situations, earning him even more reputation points

personality

positive traits: adaptable, communicative, independent neutral traits: curious, cautious, extroverted negative traits: nosy, obnoxious, trust issues wants: constant stimulation, information, a group to belong to doesn’t want: physical contact, boredom, to fall back in with enclave-like groups

- high energy, leading to near constant restlessness - too smart for his own damn good - high need for mental stimulation - which means boredom is a major problem - and yet has been known to be frustratingly patient when pursuing end goals - hoards information — knowing as much as possible is a safety net for him - interested in literally everything; prone to self-educating - this includes other people, and this interest is genuine; doesn’t believe there’s such a thing as “boring people” - curious, nosy - but cautious; doesn’t like to make a move unless he knows as much as he can, whenever feasible, and doesn’t like to make enemies whenever possible - adaptable and opportunistic - communicative, talkative (notorious for Never Shutting Up) - independent — works well on his own, isn’t prone to emotionally relying on anyone - externally-oriented (and not introspective, like... at all) - social, likes being around people and is energized by it - in addition, he likes being a member of A Group™, and likes having a group identity, both for emotional reasons and resource reasons (having access to people who know things he doesn’t and can do things he can’t) - but at the same time, emotionally distant — for all his energy, he isn’t actually much of a warm person (and he’s really bad at emotional support) - demonstrates affection by presenting gifts and experiences, and by performing acts of espionage on their behalf without their knowledge or consent - generally forms loose bonds; he might like someone just fine, but if it comes down to it, he has no issue dropping most everything and leaving it all behind - secretly a soft touch, though, especially for kids and underdogs in general - for all that he doesn’t think twice about morality, he still manages to have a conscience, which is something he rues - honestly not a terrible guy, when it comes down to it - hands-on boundary learning... meaning he’ll do everything he can to try to “accidentally” hit people’s buttons at least once so he knows where the limits are - pragmatic, practical, not prone to idealism, but not exactly a cynic, either - not ambitious — he’ll take what he can get and make what he can’t, but doesn’t have any desire to climb social ladders for the sake of power or control - somehow manages to do poorly and very well with authority at the same time, born out of a youth of pushing the line almost to the point of breaking, but being very careful not to break it - another way his lack of ambition (and ego) is exhibited is in the fact that he has no desire to show off or prove that he’s the smartest in the room (he’d actually rather be overlooked than get in a pissing contest, and honestly he wants to be underestimated. it’s a safety thing) - in addition, he doesn’t like responsibility, so there’s that aspect of it, too — if he isn’t in charge, someone has to be - unfortunately, his soft spot and conscience can combine to him taking on responsibility, because he doesn’t feel he could live with himself if he walked away...

bonus (non-personality) - Does Not Like Physical Contact - doesn’t even like being reminded he has skin, so he covers up as much as possible - overall doesn’t like being reminded of his physical existence - if he slowed down to self-inspect and/or had the resources, he’d figure out that he’d be happiest identifying as non-binary. he wouldn’t change his pronouns, but it’d help him be more comfortable in his body - he’s also likely aroace

personality typings mbti: ESTP enneagram: type 6 wing 5, self-preserving/social sun sign: gemini temperament: sanguine-choleric dæmon: american crow hogwarts house: ravenclaw

stats

birth name: shouta yamamoto code/chosen name: bellamy rook age: 33 height: 5′2″ hair color: black hair style: mid-length, bangs covering his forehead, does he have ears? nobody knows eye color: dark brown ethnicity: japanese descent face claim: fujiki naohito

(the below is written as an amalgamation of the systems in fallout 3, new vegas, and 4)

Strength: 5 Perception: 9 Endurance: 4 Charisma: 8 Intelligence: 12 Agility: 7 Luck: 7

tagged skills: speech, sneak, lockpick

most used skills: tagged skills, small guns, melee weapons, barter

traits: small frame, wild wasteland

perks: big leagues 4, armorer 3, blacksmith 2, pickpocket 4, rifleman 3, awareness 2, locksmith 3, lead belly 1, cap collector 2, lone wanderer 1, inspirational 1, medic 1, gun nut 2, hacker 3, scrapper 2, science! 1, nerd rage! 1, gunslinger 4, sneak 5, mister sandman 3, action boy 1, moving target 1, ninja 3, better criticals 2, critical banker 1

general equipment: non-unique version of deliverer, hunting rifle, combat knives (too many), grenades, any variation of gas mask (very common to see him with one on when not undercover). doesn’t have a typical outfit because he dresses to blend in, but when he’s being himself instead of a cover, he dresses in layers on layers on layers

factions: enclave, railroad (tourist), diamond city, caravans

loves: peaceful resolutions to violent scenarios, asking for more information, running cases for nick valentine, speaking as silver shroud, being supportive of travis during confidence man

likes: sarcasm, nice response, lockpicking, armor modding

dislikes: mean response, genetic purity sentiment or anything resembling it (like human elitism), supporting the brotherhood party line

hates: mean sarcasm, violent response, nudity, murder, brotherhood ending

companion perk: a light touch — when using light melee weapons, your damage and effectiveness is based on either your agility or your strength, whichever is higher. (standard: all melee damage and effectiveness is based on strength)

affinity quest: TBD

#verse : fallout ;; a crow among ravens #temp info tag

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murasaki-murasame · 7 years

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Yuri on Ice Rewatch: Episode 1

I’ve been planning to do this for a while now, and since the one-year anniversary has come around, I figured now would be a convenient time to start this rewatch. I know I might be a day early on this, but I don’t think I’d have time tomorrow to do this, so I’d rather do it now and get it up a day early than get it up a day late.

We’ll see how this turns out, but I at least want to use this rewatch to discuss my own personal history with this show, how it affected me while it was coming out, what the fandom was like at the time, etc. So this will probably be less of a review or anything like that, and more of a trip down memory lane for me as I revisit this show. Basically this is just my way of getting out all my feelings on this show, so keep that in mind.

I only decided yesterday to start this now as part of the anniversary rather than doing it sometime next year before the movie comes out, so this first post might be a little messy and unorganized, but I should get the hang of it soon enough.

My plan at the moment is to rewatch one episode a week, on each of their respective anniversary dates, for the next few months. If I can manage that. After that, I might try and do a cohesive review of the show as a whole, and I might do a post about my speculation regarding the movie. We’ll see.

I’ll put the rest under a cut since everything after this point ended up being like 3.6k words long and I think I spent like three hours on it.

Before I properly sit down and rewatch episode one, I want to talk for a bit about my history with the show before it aired, what my expectations were, etc.

I’ve more or less been with this show from the very start. I remember seeing the initial teaser image of the logo, and all of the proper trailers as they came out. I didn’t really think much about the teaser image when it came out, since I’m not really a huge fan of sports anime in general, I didn’t really have an interest in figure skating in particular, and I didn’t know much of anything about Sayo Yamamoto as a director. I’m pretty sure that after the teaser image came out, I started hearing vague whispers about how amazing Yamamoto was, and how great her shows were, so I decided pretty early on that I was probably going to watch it, even though I didn’t have much to go on.

Right from the start we all pretty much assumed that the show was going to be about female figure skaters. Partly because I’m pretty sure the logo was pink the first time we sure it, partly because Yamamoto was most well-known for doing shows about women, and partly because it had the word ‘yuri’ in the title. It was pretty obvious that that wasn’t actually what it meant, but damn if it didn’t stop people from making jokes about it. Though I guess it didn’t help that we also had Yuri Kuma Arashi from a few years before that did indeed use that exact meaning of the word in it’s title.

Then a few months or so later the trailers started coming out, and we got a better idea of what the show was actually about. And let me just say that the ‘yaoi on ice’ jokes stopped being funny the exact moment the first one was made. And they were definitely made immediately after the first trailer came out, way before the show even started.

At the time, the idea of it being about male figure skaters made me pretty immediately cautious, since sports anime has a pretty bad track record of shallow queerbaiting, and I didn’t really expect this show to be the one that finally delivered. It didn’t help that some of the scenes used in the trailers, like the lip-touching in episode three, didn’t quite come across well out of context.

I also want to take the time to mention that the season right before Yuri on Ice started, we had Battery: The Animation, which was basically like the polar opposite of YoI in terms of being a sports anime with a gay protagonist. It was just . . . not great. At all. It went a long way toward reaffirming my doubts about if the sports genre could ever do this sort of thing well, which made me even MORE apprehensive about YoI. I still have a bit of a grudge against it to this day, but it at least serves as a very convenient way for me to point out how ludicrous it is for anyone to act like any sports anime with a gay protagonist would be popular and successful, because that show sure as heck wasn’t. I should also point out that in the same season we had the Danganronpa 3 anime, and even though this is kinda sort of a spoiler, it had a pretty . . . depressing and not great depiction of a gay male character, so that was like a one-two punch of me getting pessimistic about the chances of ever getting good and happy gay rep out of the anime industry.

Either way, even in spite of that, the animation quality and the music from the trailers alone were enough to win me over and make me want to give it a try, even if I was bracing myself for disappointment.

Also, even though I don’t think I ended up watching it until way later, I highly recommend that any Yuri on Ice fans check out Endless Night, which was Sayo Yamamoto’s Animator Expo short film from a year or two ago. You can really tell how she was regaining her enthusiasm as a director by going all in on her love for figure skating. In hindsight it’s pretty interesting to consider that she probably did Endless Night when she had already begun working on Yuri on Ice as a concept and shopping it around. For the record, she also went on to do the opening sequence of Persona 5, which is another example of her putting her love of figure skating into her work.

Anyway I should probably actually sit down and watch the episode itself before I spend an hour on this whole beginning section alone. I think I’ll keep making these beginning sections for each post before I sit down and watch the episode itself, but they’ll hopefully be less lengthy than this one.

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OK let me just say first of all that I spent pretty much the entire episode choking up, and I was basically on the verge of tears during the entire ED sequence. I knew that rewatching this would be an emotional experience for me.

It’s kinda difficult to even put into words how much Yuri on Ice means to me as an individual, especially since I’d like to stick mostly to talking about this first episode alone. But I’ll at least say that it is undeniably the most personally meaningful piece of media I’ve ever encountered. It means the world to me. Before it aired, I had pretty much become resigned to the idea that, at least within the anime industry, the best representation I was going to get was some variation of the Bury Your Gays trope. I’ll probably get more into this later down the line, but I don’t think I even consciously realized exactly how much I needed something like this, since even outside of anime I’d never really experienced a story like this. And even when I started watching it, the full effect and realization of how meaningful it was to me was a gradual process that kept building up and up as the show continued to surpass my expectations, more or less culminating in episode ten.

Which is part of why I like the opening monologue of this episode on multiple levels. It obviously refers specifically to Yuri’s sense of unending surprise toward Viktor as a person [which obviously gains more and more context and weight as the show goes on], but it also matches the way that the show itself was an unending series of surprises for us as the audience. We had no idea what to expect from it, and it kept getting better and better.

It’s probably not even worth noting at this point that this rewatch series is going to mostly be focused on the romantic sub-plot in the show, because that’s the part I love the most. Obviously I love the entire show and all of it’s facets, but still. I guess my main point here is more that I won’t be talking that much about the sports aspect specifically, for the most part, since I have less of an interest in sports in general, and I’m not particularly well-versed in how figure skating works so I’d feel hesitant to talk about it much. I have immense respect and love for all of the people in the fandom who ARE actually into figure skating, though, either as fans or as athletes. Their insight into the show has been an invaluable resource for me. I might not be much of a sports fan in general, but having a greater understanding of how it works, by listening to what other people have been saying since the show started, has definitely added to my overall appreciation for the show as a whole.

Also, somewhat ironically, this is one of the episodes with the least to talk about romance-wise since Yuri and Viktor have like thirty seconds of shared screen-time in it, so I’m probably going to spend most of this post talking about other stuff. Mostly.

To start with, I love the animation and art across the show as a whole, but I think we can all agree that episode one is the peak in terms of animation quality. Not that the other episodes are badly animated in any real way, just that this episode really hits it out the park with some stunning sequences. There’s some wonderful bits of character animation in this episode, like Minako’s ballet move when she meets Yuri at the airport, or the cut of Hiroko running up to meet Yuri at the inn’s entrance, or Yuko being all bouncy and energetic. Not to mention really well-done close-up shots like the bathroom scene with Yuri and Yurio. I really like the heavily shaded and sharp style used in that scene.

But of course, the real stand-out piece of animation in this episode was definitely the joint Stammi Vicino performance, which is still one of my favourite scenes in the show. It’s incredibly well done. It’s a bit sad that none of the skating animation after this episode quite matches it, aside from maybe Welcome to the Madness, but I’m pretty sure that this sequence in this episode took several months to animate on it’s own, so I can’t exactly blame them for not keeping this level of quality once we started getting like five or six performances an episode.

One of the things that I remember surprising me the most about the show at first was how dynamic, energetic, fast-paced, and feel-good it was. With how relatively somber and slow the trailers were, and with the vague whispers I’d heard of Sayo Yamamoto being a cult classic director, I kinda got it into my head that the show would have a more . . . low-key atmosphere and sense of pacing than it actually did. I’m not sure how to describe it. In general I tend to think of obscure cult classic directors as the kinds of people who make things that are slow, psychological, moody, probably depressing, etc etc. So I was not at all expecting something as vibrant and fun and full of personality as what we got in this. I still think that the relentlessly feel-good vibe of the show is a huge reason why it struck so well with people. It doesn’t really get mentioned a lot, but it can be a surprisingly difficult concept to describe, at least in a way more detailed than just saying ‘fun things are fun’.

I also want to give a shout-out to the background art of the show, which is fantastic across the board for the entire show. I’m never really good at articulating my praise for stuff like this, but still. I think the show would have looked a lot different, and a lot worse, if it had more generic background art. Especially in terms of colour palette and shading and whatnot.

To this day, I still deeply appreciate the fact that this is a story about adult athletes who are high up in their respective field, and are struggling with adult problems. It helps to set it apart so much from most sports anime out there. Of course, even this sort of concept could be handled badly by a lesser production team, but you get what I mean. It’s a breath of fresh air. And, along the same lines, I also love that it’s clearly aimed at a more adult audience than a lot of other anime in general. It’s easy to not really think about it, because we kinda associate things ‘aimed at an adult audience’ with things that have lots of nudity or violence, but I think the idea still applies here. And even if it’s not handled quite the same as what we’d think of as ‘depictions of adult sexuality in television’, there’s still a whole lot of sexiness going on in this show.

Just to lay it out there, I honestly think that Yuri is one of my favourite fictional characters of all time, if not my absolute favourite. I have so many strong feelings about him. He’s absolutely wonderful. His entire character arc and personal journey is one of the most inspirational things I’ve seen in my life. And for a lot of reasons I just see a lot of myself in him, even though we’re very different people.

I don’t know where else to say this, so I guess I’ll just say here that it was his development and journey that inspired me to get into drawing, which I’d been putting off for years because I didn’t think I’d be good at it or enjoy it enough. I haven’t exactly done the best job at keeping up with it as a hobby, but over the last ten months or so I’ve nearly completed one sketchbook, so that’s something! I’ve only posted one drawing of mine thus far, but I plan to post more as time goes on. Probably mostly stuff to do with my OCs. I definitely want to do some proper Yuri on Ice fan art though in the future and post it here, and I’m still kinda sad I didn’t get any done by today, but I’ve been too busy lately to work on it, and I didn’t want to rush something out just to meet a certain important date. I’ll try and post some by the time I’ve done this rewatch, though.

Of course, that’s not the only thing this show has helped me with, on a personal level. I’ll probably get more into this over the rest of the rewatch, especially at the end, but this show really has become an emotional support for me. It’s helped me through a lot of dark places. I don’t know where I’d be without it.

One thing I want to get into is how incredibly different this episode feels in hindsight, now that I know what happens later. I’ve already rewatched it once, so it’s not a big surprise or anything, but still. The scenes with Viktor in particular feel very different when you know who he is as a person. When you know that he’s just a lonely, dissatisfied dude who wants to feel love and passion. The Stammi Vicino scene in particular is even more depressing and emotional when you understand that it’s basically a cry for help.

The fandom hypes up the episode ten twist and how it recontextualizes the entire show, and it really, REALLY does. It makes everything feel way different when you understand that Yuri was the one who asked Viktor to be his coach, and that he was the one who first enthralled Viktor by giving him a glimpse at a possible path to revitalizing his love of skating, and finding true, genuine love along the way. Of course Yuri was already enthralled by Viktor as an idolized god figure of sorts before that, but you get what I mean. The banquet was basically the first time they properly met as individuals. But I won’t go too deeply into the banquet scene just yet. I’ll save that for the episode ten post.

[Also I should probably admit that I still can’t quite remember if the banquet happens before or after the ‘commemorative photo’ scene. I know I should have the exact timeline of events there memorized, but it’s kinda foggy]

It’s also sorta interesting to look at Yurio’s whole attitude in hindsight, knowing that he always secretly admired Yuri and was angry at him because he knew he had so much potential and strength within him. But honestly, just to be blunt, I still don’t really care that much about Yurio’s character in general so this part is kinda vastly overshadowed by, uh, everything else, lol. I don’t really dislike Yurio or anything, I just think that he’s the least compelling or interesting of the major characters.

Before I get into shifting focus toward what the general audience reaction to this episode was, I should probably comment on the OP and ED a bit, since I haven’t yet. Personally I adore both of them. They’re wonderful. I still think that History Maker is one of the more iconic and memorable anime OP songs out there, and it never ceases to make me emotional. I still wish that the actual art and animation for the OP was more . . . interesting, though. The animation style is really good, but it suffers from a lot of noticeable recycling of animation, and the backgrounds are pretty flat and empty, although I still like the splashes of colour done at the start. I’m not entirely sure how I’d suggest improving the OP visually aside from doing it completely differently, though. But there are other Sayo Yamamoto OPs I prefer visually to this one. Like the more recent Kakegurui OP. I don’t really know if that OP’s style would have fit Yuri on Ice, but still. Even with my slight gripes about the visuals, I really can’t overstate how much I adore the song itself.

The ED is also really nice. It gets kinda overshadowed by the OP, but it’s still good on it’s own. The Instagram style is really effective and feels fresh and modern. The song itself is rather good, but not quite as memorable as History Maker. The real strong point of the ED is definitely the visual side of things. Other than the aforementioned Instagram style, I really love the images used. The assorted pictures of all the various skaters are nice, and help set up their characters pretty well, but the best part is definitely the fun, domestic scenes between Yuri and Viktor that are interspersed throughout the ED. They’re absolutely fantastic, and they’re the main reason why I have a desperate need for an entire OVA purely consisting of those sorts of scenes. I’m still internally screaming over how the scenes of them playing at the beach and them playing under the fountain were meant to be actual scenes, but were cut for time. I’d love to see what those scenes would have been like. Even the glimpses we got are wonderful, especially with how they help paint a broad picture of how happy and fun their daily lives were together, and how close they got over the course of the show. Especially after episode four or so. It just kills me in the best way possible, to think that stuff like them playing at the beach and being casually touchy-feely and just being happy and joyful was probably a completely normal daily thing for them. Not to mention the other little moments we see, like that one shot of Yuri smiling with his eyes closed while Viktor’s sitting behind him, combing his hair. It’s such a perfectly domestic and casually intimate little moment. It melts my heart every time I look at it. The more I think back on the entire show in hindsight, the more it rings true that Yuri really is the only one who gets to see Viktor’s hidden cute side. Considering that we see basically the entire show from Yuri’s POV, it’s easy to forget that basically everything about how Viktor acts around him is very different to how he is with other people.

Also I just wanna quickly say that the show’s soundtrack is fantastic. Both the background music and the skating songs. Though the skating songs are a bit more punchy and memorable. Just hearing Stammi Vicino still makes me tear up a bit.

Anyway, now I should probably touch a bit on the wider audience reaction to this episode. I won’t really have a lot to say on this end of things for this entire rewatch, since it’s kinda difficult to dig up the stuff people were saying a year ago, but still.

The most convenient links I can find to reactions are the Anime News Network Preview Guide post about the first episode, and the Reddit discussion thread for episode one.

The main point I want to make with this is that everyone pretty much immediately loved the show, and most people pretty much agreed that it was the best premiere of the Fall 2016 season. Which I agree with. It’s probably one of the best first episodes I’ve seen out of all the anime I’ve watched.

Though it’s also sorta amusing in hindsight to see people’s reactions to the homoeroticism and whatnot, and everyone’s apprehensions about how it’ll go in the long run. That is, just ‘cause at this point we know where it goes, and that it fully commits to itself. I don’t think anyone watching episode one expected that we’d end the show referring to Yuri and Viktor as fiances/husbands with no trace of irony or wishful thinking.

Anyway I should cut this short because it’s like 2am and my brain is gonna melt soon if I keep writing so yeah let’s just stop for now.

As I said before, I’m gonna try and get one episode/post done per week, so I’ll try and get my Episode 2 post out around this same time next week. I expect that most of the rest of these posts will be a whole lot shorter than this one, though, since there’s so much stuff I wanted to say right off the bat that I probably won’t need to go over again later. Some of these posts might actually be pretty short, depending on how much I can find to say about some of the more skating-dense episodes. We’ll see. I’ll try and at least stick to this schedule.

#murasaki rambles #yuri on ice #I was hoping to get some fan art done and posted today but that didn't work out #I'll try and get some done eventually #I hope I can stick to doing this for the next three months #it'll be a bit of a commitment #but I'm happy to finally have a good excuse to go crazy with gushing about my feelings about this show <3

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